Word Of Mouth Starting Convention Center Booking

Local and regional organizations are already trying to book Putnam County’s new Convention Center and Fairgrounds as it prepares to open next year.

Visitors Bureau Director of Tourism Shan Stout said they are keeping track of all requests to use the facilities. Meantime, the bureau is working on official contracts and pricing structures.

“We are technically holding dates right now,” Stout said. “And then we’ll be sending out contracts shortly for people to be able to sign, approve what they need, you know, tables and chairs and what at the fairgrounds they’d like to use, if they want to use the midway or the parking lot.”

Stout said they are encouraging local organizations to sign up as soon as possible because many events are expected to reoccur at the center each year and the calendar is going to fill up quickly. Stout said they are already holding dates for car shows, Christmas parties, and micro-trade shows.

“It’s going to be fabulous,” Stout said. “The convention center is eight thousand square feet in a grand ballroom that can also be broken up into classroom-style or small meeting spaces, so it’s going to be a multi-use facility.”

Stout said they have not started mass marketing the center throughout the state and region but they already have people from Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga who are interested in using it.

“If you are a community event, a charitable event, anything like that and you’re looking to book our space for 2025 in the convention center, please reach out to us so that we can kind of have your date on our radar,” Stout said. “Because we are community first all the way.”

Stout said they are partnering with the Leslie Town Center to host certain events that have grown too large for that building and are looking to relocate.